Vita Charge® Neonatal Keeps Calves Healthy, Growing

Vita Charge® Neonatal Keeps Calves Healthy, Growing

St. Joseph, MO – Dairy producers want to give their calves a super start to life and a thriving future. Why not make sure their nutritional needs are met and give them an additional boost with Vita Charge® Neonatal?

The first few weeks of the baby calf’s life are the most critical to keep them healthy and resilient to sickness. Newborn calves that remain healthy will have a brighter future, grow faster and the females become more productive as they are put back into the herd. Neonatal should be part of the calves’ diet for at least the first two weeks; however, some will feed it up to six weeks to ensure their calves reach their maximum potential.

Vita Charge Neonatal is a liquid supplement specifically designed for neonatal calves that supports digestive health and promotes feed and water intake during times of stress and recovery. It can be mixed with milk replacer, milk, or drenched. Neonatal provides the Amaferm® advantage in a liquid form, along with a suite of vitamins to jump-start calves’ immune system and keep them eating and keep them healthy.

A study published in the Journal of Dairy Science shows that by feeding a supplement with Amaferm like Neonatal, heifers posted 17-percent more daily feed intake. The research also shows 26-percent more weekly weight gain in heifers – both significant figures.

Kris Houdek, Wake-Up Holsteins in Caledonia, Minn., loves how content, healthy and aggressive her calves are with the Vita Charge product.

“We ran out of Vita Charge once, and alerts for low intakes went off on 12 of 25 calves. Vita Charge back in. Intakes returned to normal. It’s so simple,” Kris said. “It helps the heifers drink all their allotment every day. The difference is like night and day!”

“Feeding Neonatal to the baby calves helps them absorb more nutrients through their small intestine or ‘hind gut’ where 70-percent of the immunity is established,” said Cliff Ocker, BioZyme Area Sales Manager. “In addition to helping with nutrient absorption, the Neonatal promotes quicker development of the rumen, which allows the calves to start eating dry grain sooner. The sooner the calves start eating a dry grain, the faster they will start gaining, and often will post heavier weights at weaning.”

Good nutrition is so important because often a calf won’t overcome sickness. Healthy calves are more likely stay on feed. The healthier calves are also more likely to reach their genetic potential, contributing to the production and putting dollars back into your pocket.

In the South, heat and humidity are concerns for producers when it comes to combatting heat stress in newborn calves. Vita Charge Neonatal offers a solution for heat stress. Because of the Amaferm included in the supplement, the calves are taking in more energy, and therefore, already working against the common signs of stress related to heat and high humidity.

Often, when the calves get too hot, they will go off feed and water; however, the Amaferm in the Neonatal encourages water intake, and the calves will typically drink 10-percent more water than if they didn’t have Amaferm in their diet.

“Even if the calf eats less due to heat stress, its growth and gain shouldn’t be impacted nearly as much as if it didn’t have Amaferm in its diet,” Ocker said.

Although the initial goals are to keep your calves healthy and on feed, it is important to keep long-term goals in mind with every calf crop – grow and develop females that will become productive milkers to put back into production.

Calves will grow more efficiently, reaching an ideal breeding weight of 750-800 pounds sooner, therefore calving by the targeted 22-24 months of age in a more ideal condition. Consequently, the females are more likely to produce a healthier calf and increase their own milk production, results from proper nutrition supplements in the first two weeks of life.

A 2016 published study shows that for every increase of 1 pound of calf starter DMI at 8 weeks of age, there is a corresponding increase of 18.1 pounds more milk in the first lactation.

It’s important to provide your calves with a super start for a thriving future. Make sure that start begins with Vita Charge Neonatal. Keep your calves healthy, get them eating, and keep them eating and growing.

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